Shotover Dawn

(A panorama covering approximately 180 degrees, assembled
from six photos, taken June 1998)

Shotover Hill and the Old
Road

Shotover Hill, 3 miles (5km) to the east
of Oxford, rises steeply to a height of 557 feet (171m) above sea level. Indeed
one theory of the origin of the name Shotover is from the Old English Scoet
Ofer, meaning a steep slope.

Shotover was a Royal Forest from the
time of the Domesday book until 1660, by which time the woodland was in such
poor condition that it was disafforested or made no longer subject to forest
laws.

Throughout its time as a Royal Forest
the road from Oxford to London ran over the top of Shotover Hill. Up to the
middle of the sixteenth century the main users of the road would have been
pedestrians, riders and pack horses. The Highways Act of 1555 made parishes
responsible for the upkeep of roads within their boundaries. In the Oxford
area, increased traffic placed a heavy strain on the roads leading into the
town and this resulted in the Mileways Act of 1576. This bound inhabitants
living within 5 miles of Oxford to to supply labour proportional to their
holdings, to maintain the roads within one mile of the city center or
"mileways". However the road over Shotover was outside this one mile limit and
so did not benefit from the mileways act. Its maintenance remained the
responsibility of the parish.

By the seventeenth century wheeled carts
and waggons were starting to replace packhorses, and carriages were coming into
use for people making longer jouneys. In 1669 the diarist Anthony Wood reported
that on Monday April 26th, the first "Flying Coach" was able to complete the
journey from Oxford to London within a single day. It set out at 6 am from All
Souls college and set its passengers down at their inn in London by 7
pm.

This increase in wheeled traffic took
its toll on the roads and by 1647 parishioners with the misfortune to have a
"main road" passing through their parish were arguing that taxes should be
levied on road users to fund the upkeep of the roads. The result of this was
the first of the Turnpike Acts, passed by Paliament in 1663. This permitted
local justices in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire to levy
tolls on traffic using the important road Ermine Street, where it passed
through those counties, in order to cover the costs of keeping the road in good
repair.

The idea of making road users, rather
than parishoners, pay for road maintenance caught on slowly over the next 30
years. The early "Justice Trusts" were replaced by Independent Trustees, who
were granted powers to borrow money, appoint officers, manage the roads and
levy tolls to pay for their repair. The trustees themselves were unpaid and
specifically forbidden from making a profit from the activities of the trust.
However most were local business men who benefitted indirectly from the
increased trade brought to a town with good road links. The turnpike system
grew steadily over the next 150 years until by 1838 when the turnpikes were at
their peak, it has been estimated that there were more than 1000 turnpike
trusts, responsible for around 22,000 miles (35,000 km) of highway. This
represented around one fifth of all the public highways in the
country.

The road over Shotover was made into a
Turnpike by the Stokenchurch Turnpike act of 1719, the introduction to the act
stating that the road had "become so ruinous and Bad, that in the winter
season the said Road is Dangerous to Travellers".

Presumably the act resulted in an
improvement to the road, but the tolls charged were a source of much complaint.
In 1740 the tolls were one shilling for wagons and carriages drawn by four or
more horses, and sixpence for those with less than four horses; a lot of money
at that time.

The Turnpike Act could do nothing to
reduce the slope of the hill and the western escarpment in particular was so
steep that travellers were forced to dismount from their coaches and walk up
the hill. The resultant slow progress made Shotover a favourite haunt of
Highwaymen. In 1737 for example, John Wesley was a
victim.

In 1773 the trustees applied to
parliament for powers to divert the road to a new route entirely avoiding
Shotover. In 1775 a cutting was made up the steep face of Headington Hill
making possible the opening of a "New Turnpike" to the north of the old road,
passing through Headington and along the line of the present A40 road. However
progress on the new road appears to have been slow, with disputes over the
exact route and a shortage of funds to build it. In 1788 the trustees went back
to parliament with a request to enlarge the term and powers of the previous act
in order to allow them to complete the new road. It was not until 1789 that the
old route over Shotover was finally abandoned.

The new turnpike continued in use for
another 90 years. The 1830's were the heyday of the turnpikes when the volume
of traffic was at its maximum. During the 1840's income started to fall as the
railways began to take over the long distance traffic and the Stokenchurch road
was finally disturnpiked in 1878.

After 1789, the the road over Shotover
fell into disuse. Little maintenance has been carried out since then and the
description of 1719 is probably once more true! (Though nowadays travellers who
venture over the hill are more likely to damage sumps and exhausts than to be
attacked by highwaymen!)

The Country
Park

Over the top of Shotover Hill, the old
road is known as Shotover Plain. To the north of the Plain, the land is farmed
but the Plain itself and the land to the south comprise Shotover Country Park.
This land is open to the public and managed by the Oxford City
Council.